Saturday, November 3, 2007

As much as this week was about the Pens playing some teams from the west.As they say.

Now it is personal.

With the start of a huge run against division opponents, get ready for that old friendly hate feeling that has been doormat for a while to strike tonight.The Wild and the AV's really weren't that easy to hate.

You can fully expect to be in a pissed off mood about three minutes after the faceoff tonight.We all know Brendan Witt is going to do something dumb.

Tonight is actually a big night in New York as well.It is Al Arbour day. [ Yahoo ]

He signed a one day contract to coach his 1,500 game.We don't remember much about this guy because in the 80's we were more concerned about the "Land Before Time" than hockey.Emotional times.

But yea read this:

"Arbour joined the club in 1973 and left in 1986, only to return three seasons later for another six-season stint. He replaced Terry Simpson, the only other coach in Islanders history to win a playoff series."

"The highlight of Arbour's return was the Islanders' stunning upset of the two-time defending champion Penguins in the 1993 Patrick Division finals. New York trailed the series 3-2 before coming back and winning Game 7 on David Volek's overtime goal."

It is save to say. From the bottom of all our hearts. We hope he gets hit by a puck.Dick.

Don't blame Therrien, The defense still blows, Fluery is NOT a starter. Shero needed to answer the defense question in the off season, and when we sent T-Bo packing, we should have picked up the veteran goalie instead of waiting till now to say oh no Fluery is all smoke and mirrors. Recchi is showing his age, sure Roberts is kicking in, but at 41 and the attention he is getting how long before he slows down or that achy neck is going to last? And he starts to play like Recchi. They need to work together as a team, No matter what line they are put on, or how many changes Therrien makes, YOU ARE A TEAM, work as one, These guys know each other, now pitch in play.

The Pens played the last two games the way I expected them to play in the preseason. Given that they never showed up for a preseason game, at least they're moving forward.

The team as a whole has not looked ready to start the season yet, and we're 13 games in. Not enough preseason games? Poor off-season conditioning? The lines not having good chemistry? The lines not having the chance to find chemistry? It's probably some combination of them, it might be all of them. No one can say for sure.

Nonetheless, there is a problem here, and being that we're in mid-season, there's no quick solution. It's too late for conditioning, and the only way to find and develop chemistry on a line is to play more hockey.

We knew this was going to be a tough season, and hey, we'd still make the playoffs if the season ends now. Cool off, learn, and move on. Anyone expecting a miraculous cup run this season is fooling themselves. It's a battle, it will continue to be a battle, and we (both the team and the fans) have to be able to weather the rough times.

even the pittsburghpenguins.com recap is using any opportunity to bring up a random gary roberts mentioning.

"Gary Roberts threw his hands up in celebration with the rest of his Pittsburgh teammates, but play continued for another 1:51 until the next stoppage. Video replay confirmed Kennedy's first career goal and gave the Penguins a 2-0 lead."

Fleury's all smoke and mirrors? I'd call that ridiculous, but I don't want to insult anything ridiculous like that.

Did you even watch the game tonight? The first Isles goal was the result of an attempt by Sid to move the puck on the boards behind the Pens' net and it took a one-in-a-million bad bounce that came right out to Hunter. It's the best pass Hunter will get all year.

The only thing more ludicrous than your "smoke and mirros" statement was the masterful job Sydor and Naz did marking the trailer on the second goal. Vasicek took the breakout pass and both Nasreddine and Sydor covered him, leaving the middle of the ice wide open and Fleury out to dry. That's Defense 101 on a rush - if a puck-carrier leads a rush into the zone and there are two d-men back, one d-man picks up the puck carrier; the other looks for a trailer. Both Sydor and Naz picked up Vasicek.

The third goal came on a putback that would've beat Patrick Roy, it happened so fast. Every goalie in the league gives up a goal like that from time to time. Sometimes, the offensive player just makes a damn good play.

So I suppose we should start blaming Fleury every time an offensive player just makes a great play, every time a puck takes an unlucky bounce, or every time Nasreddine's brain decides to crap all over his skull.